5/2/19 - JASON BAUMANN, New York Public Library Coordinator of Humanities and LGBTQ Collections, spoke with host Janeane Bernstein

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the historic Stonewall uprising, a new anthology celebrating the past, present, and future of LGBTQ activism

Among the topics covered in THE STONEWALL READER:

· The presence of LGBTQ activism before Stonewall: Although many people think of the Stonewall uprising as the start of LGBTQ liberation movements, they were preceded by almost a decade of activism from organizations like the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, who organized conferences, published nationally distributed magazines, and demonstrated at the White House and the Pentagon.

· The emergence of transgender political organizing: Some might consider transgender activism to be a recent phenomenon, but there was an emerging transgender rights movement in the 1960s through pioneering magazines like Tranvestia and organizations like the Erickson Educational Foundation and the Labyrinth Foundation Counseling Service.

· The people of color on the front lines: Trailblazing figures like African American activists Ernestine Eckstein, Joel Hall, and Marsha P. Johnson, Latinx activists Sylvia Rivera and Jeanne Córdova, and Japanese American activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya were at the center of the LGBTQ movements of the time.

· Early queer revolts: Stonewall was preceded by earlier queer revolts like the Cooper Do-nuts Riot in Los Angeles in 1959, the Dewey’s restaurant sit-in in Philadelphia in 1965, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot in San Francisco in 1966, and the protests against the raid of the Black Cat Tavern in Los Angeles in 1967, among others.

THE STONEWALL READER reminds us of the importance of everyday resistance, and the wildfire that can spread from one small spark.

ABOUT THE EDITOR:

Jason Baumann is the Susan and Douglas Dillon Assistant Director for Collection Development at the New York Public Library. Baumann coordinates the Library’s LGBTQ Initiative, for which he has curated two exhibitions—1969: The Year of Gay Liberation and Why We Fight: Remembering AIDS Activism. Baumann has curated Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50, a major exhibit at NYPL for 2019.